Cardinal 44x missing serial number

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Pelj54
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Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by Pelj54 »

Hello gentlemen,
I am a new member to the forum and have some questions for the more knowledgable members on this site,if you will indulge me.
There is a 44x for sale on a certain auction site with a lack of serial number/date stamp on the foot,judging from the photo (unless my eyesight has worsened lately ).Is this unusual or explainable? Without this information how can the age of the reel be determined?

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RightCharlie
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Re: Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by RightCharlie »

May have had a new body at sometime in its life possibly due to broken foot. Many maufacturers didn't date or serial number spare parts for some reason. Its is a later reel due to shape of the bailarm, other than that difficult to estimate.

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Pelj54
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Re: Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by Pelj54 »

RightCharlie wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:28 pm May have had a new body at sometime in its life possibly due to broken foot. Many maufacturers didn't date or serial number spare parts for some reason. Its is a later reel due to shape of the bailarm, other than that difficult to estimate.
Thank you RightCharlie,
That must be the explanation.I did notice the bailarm is the same as my 1975 reel and different to the teardrop shaped bailarm on my other 74 reel.I must acknowledge and thank BeechmereLake for the "teardrop" bailarm description,which I copied/stole from his excellent post on the Life of a Cardinal from last July.
Thanks once again RightCharlie.
Regards Perry

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BeechmereLake
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Re: Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by BeechmereLake »

A lot of the time you can tell spare or NOS parts as they have spent a long time sitting in a plastic bag, the shine or sheen of the paint tends to flatten off of the part and looks slightly flat in appearance, RightCharlie is also spot on when he says no serial numbers were put on the housings when manufactured.

One thing I will say is that NOS housings for most Cardinal reels circa 1978 are an extremely hard find, I have found two in 8 years of collecting these reels and do buy them when I see them. The reel you talk about? is it green and cream or brown and cream? The reason I ask is the 44x was a very limited run reel made for this country initially due to our match circuit we had here, a high speed 6:1 ratio reel for that extra 20 casts in a match meaning more bites and more fish in the net, both reels were only made in limited numbers with the brown and tan only made for 2 years, the green and cream was a follow on from the 44 Express the only difference was the side plate.

I guess what I am saying here is with a green and cream housing the housing could be between 1970-75 or if it was brown then 1976-78 :Wink:

One other thing I may add is its been said / thought that sometimes special one off's were done by the staff at ABU, a couple spring to mind one of which I own, documented in Marco Malevasi's wonderful Cardinal book is an all Brown 44X, rotor same colour as the body, it was originally purchased from the factory by a guy in Finland and ended up in Marcos collection. The reel I have is a Cardinal 6X which has same paint on the rotor as the body but has no serial number on the foot.
" It is a sinister place yet powerfully fascinating"

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Pelj54
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Re: Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by Pelj54 »

BeechmereLake wrote: Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:57 am A lot of the time you can tell spare or NOS parts as they have spent a long time sitting in a plastic bag, the shine or sheen of the paint tends to flatten off of the part and looks slightly flat in appearance, RightCharlie is also spot on when he says no serial numbers were put on the housings when manufactured.

One thing I will say is that NOS housings for most Cardinal reels circa 1978 are an extremely hard find, I have found two in 8 years of collecting these reels and do buy them when I see them. The reel you talk about? is it green and cream or brown and cream? The reason I ask is the 44x was a very limited run reel made for this country initially due to our match circuit we had here, a high speed 6:1 ratio reel for that extra 20 casts in a match meaning more bites and more fish in the net, both reels were only made in limited numbers with the brown and tan only made for 2 years, the green and cream was a follow on from the 44 Express the only difference was the side plate.

I guess what I am saying here is with a green and cream housing the housing could be between 1970-75 or if it was brown then 1976-78 :Wink:

One other thing I may add is its been said / thought that sometimes special one off's were done by the staff at ABU, a couple spring to mind one of which I own, documented in Marco Malevasi's wonderful Cardinal book is an all Brown 44X, rotor same colour as the body, it was originally purchased from the factory by a guy in Finland and ended up in Marcos collection. The reel I have is a Cardinal 6X which has same paint on the rotor as the body but has no serial number on the foot.
Thank you BeechmereLake,
your informed reply has satisfied my curiosity about the reel.It was the green and cream model,the same colour housing as the two i own.Your short History of the 44x brought back memories as to why i purchased them in the first place.During that period i was in my late teens/early twenties and when not fishing, me and a couple of friends would often go to watch a match on the river Lea or Thames fished by the well known anglers of the day.A lot of them used the Mitchell match reels, but i fell in love with the Abu's and subsequently bought my own,which i still use to this day.I have read quite a few of your posts on this Forum and admire the pictures of your collection.I must say i feel privaledged to posess two reels of limited production from that era.
thanks again Perry.

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BeechmereLake
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Re: Cardinal 44x missing serial number

Post by BeechmereLake »

Thanks Perry for the kind words, one of the great things about posting on the forum is its safe space to keep pictures, like a numbskull I forgot to back up my computer and lost 1000's of pictures, I have managed to recover hundreds from here for future reference or repeat publications. :Hahaha:
Now I have them back they are saved.
I can relate to your walking "the match length" on the rivers as I did it myself back in the early 70's just like you most anglers used the Mitchell Match for far bank waggler fishing and the 300 for bomb or ledgering techniques, it was easier to count how many anglers didn't have a Mitchell than did.
That wonderful sound of the auto-bail being cast still lives with me today as I dont think a better reel has been made for chub fishing the far bank, certainly not on local river, the Thames. For me the only difference now from back then is the Chub are bigger, brutal things in fact many nearing the 7lb mark with 6lb fish being weighed in in a lot of matches.

On the Abu's I have to say I bought a boxed Cardinal 33 a several years ago, the feel of that small wonder reel was something I wont forget, so smooth it was like a modern day Daiwa, just like winding fresh air if you get what I mean, most of my collection are the same, so smooth and reliable, even yesterday my converted Cardinal 55 work flawlessly as a few turbo charged hit the net, great reels in 78 still great now. :Hat:
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" It is a sinister place yet powerfully fascinating"

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